Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has adopted bill No. 2493on joint stock companies, which proposes to allow companies to choose a corporate governance model and, along with the current two-tier corporate governance system, introduces a single-level one.
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported that the bill at first reading was supported by 270 MPs with the required 226 supportive votes.
“This law brings the legislation into line with the requirements of reality. The general meetings are being improved: it is envisaged that they can be held in electronic form. A corporate affairs adviser is being introduced to help shareholders. The legal status of the corporate secretary has been settled. Today he or she may be appointed by the supervisory board of the company, but his or her status is not regulated,” Head of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy Danylo Hetmantsev said from the rostrum of the parliament.
At the same time, one of the main innovations of the bill is to strengthen the protection of minority shareholders, one of the authors of the bill, MP from the Servant of the People parliamentary faction Roksolana Pidlasa said.
“Today, the majority of the rights of the world’s shareholders appear only if the share of their stockholding reaches 10%,” she said.
According to the explanatory note to the bill, the bill also brings the rules on the representation of shareholders in accordance with EU law, in particular, Directive 2007/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of July 11, 2007 on the exercise of certain rights of shareholders in listed companies, and also harmonizes legislation on mergers, acquisitions and divisions of JSC with Directive 2017/1132/EC.
